Finnaldo

Bargain bucket joke book levels this. Amos Gill the only half-decent one and that shouldn’t be anywhere near top ten.

Decent start to the season for Hinckley; 3-2 win vs Droitwich, 3-1 loss vs Heather, 3-1 & 2-1 wins vs Bilston (both games AFC were down to ten for more or less a full half) and a 3-0 win this weekend against Chelmsley makes it four wins, 12 points and top of the table after the first five games. More encouragingly the fact the main Droitwich, Bilston and Heather, probably our main competitors this year, have dropped five, nine and six points respectively already gives Hinckley a nice advantage going into a very nice run of games. Seems like a more open league this year with plenty of points being spread quite evenly, if Hinckley stay focused and win games they should be winning then there’s a potential to open a nice cushion, but that there’s a lot of football to be played before then.

They have to be one of the most consistently dodgy clubs in non-league right? There’s been clubs that have been far worse but ultimately paid for it and went tits up. Borough seem to avoid any real consequence, look at Ilkeston who have probably been as bad but have consistently gone bust as a result. Was talking to a caterer last year about how he got done over by them. How they’ve gone 15 years without winding up is in some ways impressive.

Hope you push on mate, enjoy having a Leicestershire fixture amongst the endless horrible Wolverhampton games and two hour Shropshire visits. To be fair we’ve been perennial favourites for a while and never got the job done I think how well we do balances on who we keep, retention has been awful the last couple years and it means we inevitably start slow and drop points. Slightly more confident this year as I think the squad enjoy playing with each other currently and think that they can get the job done this season. A long few weeks before we find out what we’re starting with though…

Don’t think we’ll go straight up and I think we need to look at a planning for a couple seasons and a proper, thorough rebuild. Starting by clearing the rotten foundations. Won’t happen though.

This is why we deserve to go down, and won’t go up soon.

On a similar note, known lads who have been grabbed by the throat for booing.

Oh no it’ll be like another day with finances. Especially when we’ve loaned against future PL earnings. Everyone who got us relegated on the seventh highest wage packet will be there next season. Minus Rodgers.

Or relegation.

This is it really. Remember calls for O’Neill into come back around 2010. Too young to understand the significance at the time but this is similar. We need a rebuild under a new vision. And it’ll take a few years at least.

If you’re happy to clap on Rodgers all season, you certainly aren’t criticising Top, Lads I know have been assaulted today at the ground for booing. Same crowd. Happy for the club to wither.

👍🏻

If you were pro-Rodgers you were complicit.

Is there anything semi-interesting happening at non-league level? No quasi-professional National League but steps 3/4/5? Be interested to know.

Hinckley’s play off semi on Monday, 3pm kick off so a perfect double header for anyone going the game against Everton later in the day…👀 Droitwich are promising to bring a few, they’ve sold out two coaches last time I heard so should be a great atmosphere for bank holiday football!

Hinckley come back from 2-0 down in their replayed, one-off penalty shoot out to advance to the league cup final, played at Walsall on Wednesday 10 May. Subject to date change, should they beat a very good Droitwich team at home in the play off semi finals, then they will also have a play off semi finals on either Saturday 6th or potentially Monday 8th. Very busy schedule but an exciting week for AFC!

Better than being kicked out I suppose Probably the best outcome for us really, we still have a chance at the final and we don’t have to play a full replay with an already congested fixture list. There’s still whatever fines are agreed as well.

I respect that a lot more than the previous response I got! Mine is more of a cynical view, and it perhaps cast them as worse owners than they are. They clearly have the right intent, and correct decisions were ultimately made (we wouldn’t have got as far as we did otherwise), and you’d put them, ultimately in the upper percentile of owners. It’s more a response to the idea that they’ve never set a foot wrong up until the last year; there’s always been weaknesses there, they’ve just more often than not been completely over-shone by success. Its the utter inability to accept the owners aren’t perfect by a lot of our supporters that gets me, a healthy level of criticism should be expected of anyone. Otherwise situations like the last 18 months occur.

Was there, rumours go from them being from Hinckley, Leicester or Nuneaton but I’ve never seen them at a game that’s for sure. Decked a Atho player and was dragged out whilst getting booted by the Atho fans. Don’t know what they expected really. Not sure why the ref called it. Three penalties left, either finish it there or get the fans out and finish it behind closed doors. I can’t imagine we’ll even bother playing the replay now, if Hinckley aren’t kicked we’ll probably withdraw from it now. A couple of bellends ruined a fantastic game.

To be fair never looked good for Coalville today, Barwell usually give them a game and Barwell are vastly improved this season, and more so since the reverse fixture. Excellent season for them given they’re working with a pittance of a budget for that level. Bad luck for Coalville, but at the same time they had the breathing room to take it and it might be the kick up the arse they need to get over the line. Elsewhere, another 4-0 win for Hinckley and the sixth clean sheet in a row. Looking great value for the play offs and hopefully this years the year!

So any actual opposition to the points I laid out or just the usual ‘clap trap!’ and ‘nonsense!’? I’ve never seen an actual countenance to these points I laid out. Very generous with their investment in the club and city? Absolutely. Any evidence of informed or strategic ownership? As we see now, it doesn’t look like it. This absolute defence of the ownership is bizarre, they deserve their plaudits, that doesn’t make them immune to criticism.

No chance it’ll be considered a local derby and be out to win, Coalville haven’t had the best record there either so it should be a good match either way.

To protect? No not necessarily, I imagine to perhaps to enhance their brand in the European market primarily. But at the same time, they’re known to have close links to a very dubious monarchy and it’s been hinted that they could be under some scrutiny should power ever be wrested from them. Yet they’ve closely cultivated an image over here, with the free giveaways and investment in the broader community, to the point that you ask anyone about them the first thing they’ll point out is how good owners they are. It may be they could have purely good intentions, however the fact they’re investing here whilst using links to a dubious regime to further their monopoly in Thailand is the very definition of sportswashing.

People won’t want to hear it and I’ll get pelters for it so I’ll leave it here and pop off: The whole ownership has been a big sportswashing exercise since they bought from Mandaric, and it’s been incredible luck we got as far as we did before our downturn. To preface: they never shied away from investment and putting money into the local community which I will give them credit for, they aren’t the Oystons or SISU and it would be revisionist to say so. That however is exactly what Sheikh Mansour has done with Man City or the Saudis have started in Newcastle. Granted they are nowhere near as corrupt and frankly backwards of either of those families, the extremely dodgy links to the Thai royal family and issues of corruption and repression of opposition with that regime sticks. On the football side, let’s take an honest view at it, with the facts or more likely theories of every action at the time it happened: 2010: The Thais buy the club from Mandaric, and a hortly before this Pearson had been sacked the first time and replaced with Paolo Sousa. The nature of the sacking was never actually revealed but the two likely explanations were that either Mandaric thought this would make Leicester a more attractive proposition than Pearson, the other rumour was that it was a direct request from the Thais as part of the agreement to buy the club. October 2010: Sousa is sacked and replaced Sven. On the face of it, with the sacking of a foreign manager with a history of success to replace with another foreign manager with a larger (but also more distant) history of success this would lend credence to the suggestion that perhaps it was the Thais who ordered Pearson’s initial sacking for a more ‘appealing’ manager. Massive sums of money are spent to achieve promotion. November 2011: following a midtable finish and an average start, Sven is sacked and replaced by Pearson. This is rightfully considered one of the Thais’ best decisions within the club, and with the eventual success of the move would begin a period in which the ownership were seen as shrewd and patient in their running of the club, rewarding managers with time should results not go their way. They would also grant Pearson full control of the playing side of the club, introducing new scouting measures under Steve Walsh and a focus on sports science and recovery. Whilst these moves were correct, it has to be asked whether it was indeed a true understanding of what made Pearson successful, or simply going back to what they knew worked before their purchase of the club, as Pearson’s 5th place finish in 2009/10 had not been replicated since. July 2015: Following the Thailand scandal, Pearson is sacked and the replacement is… Claudio Ranieri? With the benefit of hindsight this move is lauded as genius, but of course anyone who was a supporter at the time was scratching their head. The ownership has reverted to type: a foreign manager with a history of success. However this one seemed in decline following a poor run of postings, being sacked by Greece following defeat to the Faroe Islands. Of course now we know that this proved an inspired choice, and with a perfect storm the rest proved history. However, my argument is this: with a managerial appointment history which reads as following: -Foreign manager of recent success -Foreign manager of somewhat recent success, seemingly in decline -The manager sacked on their purchase of the club, who had outperformed their appointments up to that point -Foreign manager of distancing success seemingly in decline Does this read as an ownership whose finger was on the pulse, with a shortlist of up and coming managers, proactively updated should a change be required? Or an ownership lurching from manager to manager on a simplified, seemingly uninformed motif and lucked upon a 5,000/1 jackpot? I won’t continue for every manager, but you can clearly identify Shakespeare as ‘part of the old Pearson set-up that worked’ (similar to Pearson’s reappointment) and Puel, again, as a foreign manager whose success once upon a time was lauded, but had become somewhat stale. Rodger’s appointment was somewhat in opposition to previous appointments, and marked a decision seemingly to build on successes from the 2015/16 campaign and the Champion’s League Quarter Final that followed. Whilst we showed progress initially, this was quickly scuppered when two seasons, back-to-back, top four finishes had been thrown away from positions that required midtable form to achieve. Signs of Brendan’s previous reign at Liverpool begun to show, and many would suggest he should have gone at least 18 months ago. However this was the ownership’s biggest project since Pearson’s second run, and the appointment of his former Liverpool colleague Lee Congerton, as well as sacking of physio Dave Rennie, proved this the case. However both these moves proved disastrous following poor transfer dealings and piling injury lists. Still, Pearson-esque leniency was awarded, up until the situation we now find ourselves in. Furthermore, the board seemingly remains near untouched since the Championship days, and all financial strategy was put into Champion’s League football which was failed. Continued employment of the likes of Jon Rudkin following embarrassing incidents like the signing of Adrien Silva, suggests an almost complete reliance on these figures making them near unsackable. With all that in mind I’m convinced that an almighty turn of luck in Ranieri has turned what was ownership of subpar to downright poor strategising and understanding of football and wider context within the game, albeit with generous investment and understanding of financial sensibilities with Vichai, into an entity that is now straight up worshipped by a sizeable portion of Leicester supporters, which has only gotten worse since the tragic death of Vichai. Either way without a complete change in character, I’m extremely worried about our future, future parachute payments tied up against loans with seemingly no culpability, no sense of foresight and a supporter base happy to let it happen in front of them.